page_title: Red-crested tree-rat
section_title: Classification
hierarchical_section_title: Red-crested tree-rat / Classification
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Joel Asaph Allen (1838-1921)
context_page_description: The red-crested tree-rat or Santa Marta toro is a species of tree-rat found in the monotypic genus Santamartamys in the family Echimyidae. It is nocturnal and is believed to feed on plant matter, and is mainly rufous, with young specimens having a grey coat. IUCN list the species as critically endangered: it is affected by feral cats, climate change, and the clearing of forest in its potential range in coastal Colombia.
  It is known only from three specimens, a specimen collected in 1898 in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and identified by Herbert Huntingdon Smith, a specimen identified by the American ornithologist and entomologist Melbourne Armstrong Carriker in 1913 at the same location, and a further specimen observed in the same location in 2011. Found at altitudes of 700 to 2,000 metres, the species is endemic to Colombia in an isolated area with high levels of biodiversity. The species was initially identified as Isothrix rufodorsalis in 1899, re-classified as Diplomys rufodorsalis in 1935, and the monotypic genus Santamartamys was created in 2005 for the species.
context_section_description: Known as the "red-crested tree rat", this species was originally described as Isothrix rufodorsalis by American biologist Joel Asaph Allen in 1899, and was transferred to genus Diplomys in 1935 by George Henry Hamilton Tate. In 2005, its subfamily Echimyinae was revised by Louise Emmons from the Smithsonian Institution, and identified a number of unique features of this species, including the differences between the teeth of this species and others in genus Diplomys. This resulted in the establishment of monotypic genus Santamartamys.
  The genus name Santamartamys comes from "Santa Marta", part of the name of the location where the specimens were found, and mys, meaning "mouse". Rufodorsalis comes from Latin, with rufus and dorsalis meaning "red" and "back", respectively, referring to the colour of this rodent.
caption: Joel Asaph Allen first described the species as Isothrix rufodorsalis in 1899.
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